Falsely accused cable thieves sue AT&T Broadband seeking millions

Posted: Sunday, December 16, 2001

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Carmen Gonzalez says it was bad enough when a Marietta police officer and a representative of AT&T Broadband banged on her door just before midnight in May and accused her of stealing cable service.

A phone call to the company the next day seemed to fix the problem, she said, when a company representative assured Gonzalez that the false information in her file would be removed and her service -- which she paid for -- would be reconnected.

But a few days later the police returned, arrested and handcuffed her, charged her with cable theft and jailed her for the night. Four months later, it took a jury just 16 minutes to acquit her.

Now Gonzalez and 11 other Marietta residents with similar stories have sued AT&T Broadband seeking more than $50 million damages. The plaintiffs say they suffered unnecessary expense and humiliation because of the company's accusations and haste to prosecute.

According to the lawsuit filed in Fulton County state court Friday, some of the plaintiffs didn't even have cable service. Two say their arrests got them fired from their jobs, and another says no company will hire her because she now has criminal charges on her permanent record.

Only Gonzalez went to trial. The charges against the other plaintiffs were dropped.

AT&T Broadband, based in Englewood, Colo., has not seen the lawsuit and had no comment Saturday, spokesman Andrew Johnson said.

According to the complaint, the company didn't review customer records or investigate properly before filing criminal complaint.

"Astoundingly, AT&T issued these reports without ever verifying whether the apartments were even physically connected to, otherwise equipped with or even able to receive cable television service," the lawsuit says.

It also contends that company agents and police questioned children about their parents, tried to get into plaintiffs' apartments late at night and ignored their claims that they had no cable hookup, legal or otherwise.

AT&T Broadband estimates that illegal cable connections in metro Atlanta cost it more than $100 million a year. Since the company took over MediaOne about 18 months ago, Atlanta-based spokesman Reg Griffin said, it has checked more than 500,000 homes near its cable lines and sought arrests in about 100 cases.

AT&T Broadband is reviewing purchase offers for its operations, with at least three companies -- AOL Time Warner Inc., Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. -- seeking to acquire it. AT&T Broadband has about 13.7 million customers.